Dalia Mogahed, appointed by US President Barack Obama and the first Muslim woman to be a member of the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, has said the Gülen movement, a faith-based social movement named after Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, is a model and inspiration for all those working for the good of the society.

Mogahed spoke with Sunday's Zaman in Doha, Qatar, and commented on a couple of topics, including the US approach to Muslims worldwide during the Obama administration, the state of democracy and religious freedom in the Muslim world and the contributions of the Gülen movement to global peace and understanding.

She continues to head the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies in Washington, D.C., as well as her advisory duty to Obama while focusing on inter-religious dialogue and cooperation, a task she has been carrying out for more than two months now. Members of the 25-seat council are appointed to a one-year term and work on recommendations in the area of their expertise which are then included in the annual report after being reviewed by the larger council and ultimately presented to the US president.

Specifically drawing attention to the movement's emphasis on intercultural and interfaith dialogue activities, Obama's advisor said this initiative is "highly admirable and impressive," adding that the "followers of this movement have done a phenomenal job by working on interfaith dialogue."

For the last 20 years, the Gülen movement has been active in delivering humanitarian aid to various parts of the world, establishing trade relations between businessmen worldwide, opening healthcare institutions and carrying out dialogue activities between peoples of different cultural and religious backgrounds. However, its primary focus is on education. Teachers and businessmen inspired by the teachings of Gülen, which emphasize the importance of educating young generations with the idea of peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding, have opened education institutions of various forms; from elementary schools to universities to language courses in over 100 countries so far. Some 700 students from 115 countries receiving a high-quality education in these institutions participated in the 7th Turkish Olympiads, organized a week ago in Turkey and watched by millions in the country.

"I think the Gülen movement offers people a model of what is possible if a dedicated group of people work together for the good of the society. I also think that it is an inspiration for other people and Muslims for what they can accomplish," Mogahed said, commending the movement. She noted that "this initiative has a lot to teach to other people and Muslims, but it needs to broaden its membership profile." She then elaborated on her advice to the movement. "It has moved beyond Turkey in its very benevolent projects and it serves people from all around the world of all backgrounds, but it is still made up mostly of Turks. That is what I feel is in need of expanding," she said.

When reminded that some speculate the movement has a hidden agenda, Mogahed told Sunday's Zaman that she usually does not attach any importance to such allegations put forward without evidence. "And I have not seen any evidence so far," she said.

Talking about the most fundamental change from previous US administration to the current one in terms of America's approach to the Muslim world, Mogahed argued the language Obama uses stands at the center of transformation in that regard which, she said, saw a "dramatic change" compared to the George W. Bush era. "Obama's language is respectful and conciliatory. He speaks to Muslims directly in an empathetic way and not over their heads to his own base in the US," she said.

Speaking in Cairo last week, Obama gave a historic address to more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide and said he seeks a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." This speech, which Obama began by greeting the audience in Arabic and during which he cited verses from the Quran, making statements in line with its teachings, found a receptive audience and was praised by many. Experts say "this speech is not a new page in an old book but the first page of a completely new book," as was put by Sunday's Zaman columnist Kerim Balcı only minutes after the historic occasion, speaking on a TV program.

Mogahed stresses the significance of this speech as well and also voiced her hopes for concrete steps, which she believes will follow the rhetoric. "I think the most important change that has occurred is the conversation is back, talking about politics, political differences or political alliances that Muslims have with the US rather than the conversation being one about a war against the Islamic world. I believe there is a great opportunity [for normalization of relations between the US and the Muslim world] which may never come again." She further asserted that Obama adopted this discourse despite "tremendous" political pressure and that "he has no benefit for himself in making those statements."

'Giving religious freedom to people strengthens the state'

One of the key issues Obama highlighted in his Cairo speech was religious freedom and letting women wear headscarves if they wish to. Mogahed underlined the significance of this principle as well and said: "The US is a world leader in religious freedom. Giving religious freedom to people does not threaten the state; in fact, it strengthens it."

The US president rebuked some Western countries who impose restrictions on women who want to cover their head for religious reasons. Turkey is a well-known and notorious example in that regard. With long-standing debates having borne no fruit at all because of staunch opposition coming from some groups in Turkey, women are still not allowed to attend school or work in the public sector while wearing a headscarf. Turkey's population is 99 percent Muslim.

Mogahed finally touched upon the state of democracy in the wider Muslim world and stated that democratic governance is not very strong there. "There is very little reason to be very hopeful that it will dramatically improve in the next four years," she argued. Asserting that specific values, such as the rule of law, strong institutions and a separation of powers between them, protecting the rights of minorities, equality before the law and freedom of expression and religion, have to be at the foundation of any democracy, Obama's only Muslim woman advisor concluded that "the Muslim world has room to grow."

__________________
Logic that makes no sense…
Islam requires a Muslim to wage war against the Kafiroon.
I know someone who is Muslim and doesn't wage war against the Kafiroon.
Therefore, Islam doesn't require waging war against the Kafiroon.
(Right?) ROPMA

“Islam was such a desirable creed the Fuehrer longed for it to become the official SS religion.” ~General Alexander Löhr~

“You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers … until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria … like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right."

"You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it … "

"You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey … Until that time, any step taken would be too early—like breaking an egg without waiting the full forty days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside."

"The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all—in confidence … trusting your loyalty and secrecy. I know that when you leave here—[just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and the feelings that I expressed here.”

“Now it is a painful spring that we live in. A nation is being born again. A nation of millions [is] being born—one that will live for long centuries, God willing … It is being born with its own culture, its own civilization. If giving birth to one person is so painful, the birth of millions cannot be pain-free. Naturally we will suffer pain."

"It won’t be easy for a nation that has accepted atheism, has accepted materialism, a nation accustomed to running away from itself, to come back riding on its horse. It will not be easy, but it is worth all our suffering and the sacrifices.”

"The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web to wait for people to get caught in the web; and we teach those who do. We don’t lay the web to eat or consume them but to show them the way to their resurrection, to blow life into their dead bodies and souls, to give them a life.”
~Fethullah Gulen~

__________________
Logic that makes no sense…
Islam requires a Muslim to wage war against the Kafiroon.
I know someone who is Muslim and doesn't wage war against the Kafiroon.
Therefore, Islam doesn't require waging war against the Kafiroon.
(Right?) ROPMA

“Islam was such a desirable creed the Fuehrer longed for it to become the official SS religion.” ~General Alexander Löhr~

__________________
Logic that makes no sense…
Islam requires a Muslim to wage war against the Kafiroon.
I know someone who is Muslim and doesn't wage war against the Kafiroon.
Therefore, Islam doesn't require waging war against the Kafiroon.
(Right?) ROPMA

“Islam was such a desirable creed the Fuehrer longed for it to become the official SS religion.” ~General Alexander Löhr~

Likely soldiers exercising their constitutional right to depose the Islamist government of Erdogan and return Turkey to a secular form of government. That is why Obama supports Erdogan. He is an Islamist.

__________________Ubi libertas habitat ibi nostra patria est

I hold it as a principle that the duration of peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict on the enemy. –Gen. Mikhail Skobelev

It's been a while I hope you are doing well. It's hard to know what to believe but if the Turkish military is pro secularism, and anti-Islamist Erodgan as Col. Ralph Peters indicated on FOX, isn't it better for America if this coup is successful?

Yes Sir SF-TX, I think you're right, because it was my understanding Erdogan and Gulen were allies, contrary to what some media are reporting..

Thanks akv, doing well... Just living the dream!

Edited to add...
Could it be that Erdogan may be using Gulen as a smokescreen, to set himself up to look like a secularist, although he's an Islamist (Taqiyya?), so the pro-secularists, who initiated the coup, can quietly be swept under the rug... Crazy times...
And I agree akv, a pro-secular regime would be better for the free world...

__________________
Logic that makes no sense…
Islam requires a Muslim to wage war against the Kafiroon.
I know someone who is Muslim and doesn't wage war against the Kafiroon.
Therefore, Islam doesn't require waging war against the Kafiroon.
(Right?) ROPMA

“Islam was such a desirable creed the Fuehrer longed for it to become the official SS religion.” ~General Alexander Löhr~

__________________
Logic that makes no sense…
Islam requires a Muslim to wage war against the Kafiroon.
I know someone who is Muslim and doesn't wage war against the Kafiroon.
Therefore, Islam doesn't require waging war against the Kafiroon.
(Right?) ROPMA

“Islam was such a desirable creed the Fuehrer longed for it to become the official SS religion.” ~General Alexander Löhr~

__________________
Logic that makes no sense…
Islam requires a Muslim to wage war against the Kafiroon.
I know someone who is Muslim and doesn't wage war against the Kafiroon.
Therefore, Islam doesn't require waging war against the Kafiroon.
(Right?) ROPMA

“Islam was such a desirable creed the Fuehrer longed for it to become the official SS religion.” ~General Alexander Löhr~